the Complexion Connexion

... is excerpted in the Financial Times' Digital Business section today.

That is why the big data centres make Bill Gates and other
technology executives so nervous. They encapsulate the full disruptive
potential of utility computing. If people and businesses can rely on
central stations to fulfil all or most of their computing requirements,
they will be able to slash the money they spend on their own hardware
and software. All the dollars saved are ones that would have gone into
the coffers of Microsoft and the other tech giants.

What is
happening to computing today is a revolution, the biggest upheaval
since the invention of the PC in the 1970s. But it is not without
precedent. It bears a close resemblance to what happened to mechanical
power 100 years ago.

The Big Switch is not as in-your-face as his maiden bomb, Does IT Matter? But The Big Switch is a more important book because its central metaphor hasn't happened yet.

The book along with Nick's equally readable blog, "Rough Type", provide a center for rich discussion as utility computing fleshes itself out.